Sports & performance
Gym & Strength Training Chiropractor
Most gym injuries are not caused by bad form. They are caused by a change — more volume, a heavier cycle, a new movement, a return after a few weeks off. Finding the change is usually more useful than filming your squat.
Should I see a chiropractor for a gym injury?
A chiropractor can assess and manage most musculoskeletal gym injuries — lower back, shoulder, hip and knee complaints from lifting — and plan a return to training. Assessment at Northern Beaches Chiropractic in Currambine covers your programming as well as the painful area, since a change in load is usually part of the picture.
What the big lifts ask for
The squat asks for hip and ankle range, trunk stiffness under load, and the ability to hold a position while fatigued. When any of those runs short the lower back or the knees tend to absorb the difference.
The deadlift is the one people fear most and it deserves less of that fear than it gets. Lower back soreness after a heavy pull is ordinary. What is worth looking at is soreness that lingers, or a pull that has stopped feeling controllable.
Bench and overhead press load the shoulder in very different positions. Pressing volume that climbs faster than the cuff and upper back can support is behind most pressing-related shoulder pain, and the fix is usually about exposure rather than technique.
Progressive overload is the point of training and also the mechanism behind most training injuries. The load has to go up; it just has to go up at a rate the tissue can follow.
Where people commonly feel it
These are the areas that come up most with gym and strength training. Each links through to a fuller explanation of that presentation.
Lower back
Deadlift and squat volume, or a jump in intensity. Usually mechanical and usually manageable.
Shoulders
Pressing volume, bench position, or overhead work introduced too quickly.
Hips
Squat depth and range, or lateral hip pain that shows up with volume.
Knees
Squat and lunge load, particularly through a hypertrophy block.
Stiffness limiting position
Ankles, hips and thoracic spine. Often the reason a position will not improve however much you cue it.
How we approach it
We start with the programme. What you were doing, what changed, how the week is structured and where the deload went. Most of the answer is usually in there.
Then we test the area and the movement, under something resembling the load that provokes it. A shoulder that is fine empty-handed and painful at eighty percent needs to be assessed at eighty percent.
From there it is the usual combination: hands-on work and needling where the tissue is irritable, and a modified programme that keeps you training while capacity rebuilds. You should leave with specific numbers, not the advice to take it easy.
Who you will see
Someone who has done the training, not just read about it
Dr Corey Williams spent more than ten years in CrossFit, strength and conditioning — coaching, programming and competing — before and alongside chiropractic. He holds a double bachelor qualification in chiropractic from Murdoch University and is advanced dry needling certified.
He has also spent time around AFL and elite sporting environments, where return to play is decided on criteria rather than optimism. That shapes how these plans are built.
It also means a conversation about gym and strength training starts at what the activity actually demands, rather than at a diagram.
- Double bachelor, Murdoch University
- Advanced dry needling certified
- 10+ years strength & conditioning
- Experience in elite sporting environments
Getting back under the bar
Almost nobody needs to stop lifting entirely. A modified squat, a trap bar instead of a straight bar, a reduced range, a lighter cycle with more frequency — there is nearly always a version of the lift that the irritable tissue will tolerate.
Load goes back up on evidence. If a session leaves you no worse the next morning, that is the signal to progress. If it does not, we hold.
The endpoint is not being pain-free at rest. It is handling the loads your training actually calls for, repeatedly, when you are tired.
What care may involve
Getting to the clinic
The clinic is at 1244 Marmion Avenue in Currambine, opposite Milky Lane, a short drive from Currambine, Joondalup, Burns Beach and the surrounding northern suburbs.
Frequently asked questions
Is deadlifting bad for your back?
No. Deadlifting is one of the better ways to build a back that tolerates load. Soreness after a heavy session is normal. Pain that persists, or that changes how you move, is worth assessing — but the answer is very rarely to stop deadlifting permanently.
Do I need to fix my technique?
Sometimes, but it is less often the cause than people expect. A sudden change in volume or intensity explains more gym injuries than form does. Technique work is useful when the assessment points to it, not as a default.
Can I keep lifting while I recover?
In most cases yes, with modifications. Continuing to train — scaled — generally produces better outcomes than a complete break, and it keeps the habit intact, which matters more than people credit.
How long before I am back to my old numbers?
It depends on the tissue and how long it has been going on. You will get an honest range after the assessment, and progress is judged on how you respond rather than on a fixed calendar.
Related pages
Last reviewed by Dr Corey Williams, Chiropractor. General information, not individual health advice.
Training through something?
Book an assessment at the Currambine clinic and get a plan that keeps you moving.